


Portland Border

by WolfjawsWriter



Series: Darkwood and Co. [1]
Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark, Dark Character, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 06:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15261075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfjawsWriter/pseuds/WolfjawsWriter
Summary: Lockwood and Co. are not just a ghost-hunting agency anymore. Now, there is more to them than there was before. Secrets hide behind the windows and door of Portland Row. Dark Secrets.Do not doubt that they are waiting.The waiting is coming to an end.-----------Chapters are not in chronological order.





	Portland Border

**Author's Note:**

> Never. Cross. The Border

**—————3º P.O.V.—————**

 

_‘CRASH!’_

 

Alphonse and Odile looked up to a massive chunk of wood that fell to the floor. As they walked they noticed how the scenery around them had changed; there was nobody in the streets, the buildings were debris and pieces of their former selves.

 

“This is it” Alphonse whispered “we made it!” They walked through the streets and looked out after the last turn.

 

“Wow” They breathed. They came face to face to a still standing edifice: a house. It was tall, probably three stories tall, but without anything to stand beside it, the place looked massive. Like the rest of the landscape, it was poorly taken care of, with paint-less spots and dirt stains.

 

“This is really creepy” Odile muttered.

 

“Yeah, isn’t it great?”

 

“We could get in real trouble” She giggled “I wonder if there are ghosts inside there at this hour, it is pretty cloudy”

 

“There’s only one way to find out” Alphonse unsheathed his rapier and smiled confidently “come on, let’s go check it out”

 

“Oh, no!” Both agents jerked back with a yelp at the sudden appearance “the only checking _you_ will do will be the check out of here!”

 

“Aw _man_ ” Bobby Vernon took the rapier out of Alphonse’s hands and ushered him back.

 

“We are way beyond the Border” He scolded.

 

“Huh, Bobby don’t tell me you’re scared” The older kid scowled at Odile’s banter.

 

“We all ought to be; we are right now in very real danger” He insisted-

 

“Danger? Ha! I live on the wild side” Alphonse, who was now standing directly in front of the house, hollered “I laugh in the face of danger, HA HA HA HA-”

 

Raucous laughter erupted from the edifice and incessantly resounded all around them. Bobby took Alphonse and pushed behind him as the sound intensified, making sure that the younger agents stayed still behind him. The sound started to die and go back into the house as the beings inside it approached the entrance. Bobby gulped loudly as two people walked out of the house: a small, short haired girl and a roundish boy with sandy-colored hair, both with rapiers, flares and salt bombs hanging on their waists. They dangerously resembled agents.

 

“Well, well, well, George. What have we got here?” The girl asked as they paced closer.

 

“Hmmm. I don’t know, Luce. What do you say, skull?” The boy responded, however, no one answered his question, and he and the girl just looked at each other “yeah, just as I thought: a trio of _trespassers_!”

 

“And quite by accident, let me assure you” Bobby stammered as he took both Alphonse’s and Odile’s hands “a simple navigational error-”

 

“Hold on a minute” The girl said as she lowered to Bobby’s height, though she wasn’t that much taller than him “I know you; you’re Kipps’ little stooge!”

 

“I, Miss, am Mr Kipps fellow agent” He replied indignant.

 

“And that makes you…?” The boy, George, circled the kids.

 

“Fittes agents” Little Alphonse spat back. The girl, Lucy, started to circle them as well.

 

“Do you know what we _do_ to little agents who walk past the Border?” She said venomously as her small hands ghosted over Odile’s hair.

 

“Puh, we are Fittes agents, you can’t do us anything!” Alphonse challenged before Bobby pulled him and whispered;

 

“Uhh, technically, they can. We _are_ on their side of the Border”

 

“But Bobby, they are nothing but slobbering mangy idiots” The older boy gave him a panicked look that Alphonse didn’t quite understood and repeatedly whispered to him, hoping that the others wouldn’t hear him.

 

“Ix-nay on the oopid-stay…!”

 

“Who are you calling ‘oopid-stay’?!” George yelled annoyed.

 

“Oh my! Look at the hour, we better get going-” Bobby tried to turn but was stopped by Lucy who jumped in front of him.

 

“What’s the hurry? We would _loooove_ you to stick around for _playtime_ ”

 

“Yeah” George smiled wickedly “we could play whatever is ‘fitting’ our mood” They both erupted in strident and ear-piercing laughter, louder than before, which resounded all around them. Odile, who had remained scared to silence the entire affair, winced at the sound, but was pulled away by Bobby, who was now running away with both kids behind him.

 

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going!” They heard a hollering female voice behind them. It was needless to look around to know that they were being chased. Alphonse, unsure of what else to do, kept running with Odile behind him until dared to look back, only to find they weren’t being chased anymore.

 

“I…I think we lost them” He said breathlessly, looking at his friend. They were still surrounded by crumbled buildings and decaying plants and ghost-fog was starting to appear around their ankles, which meant they were still inside the wrong side of the Border, but to find the exit they would need-

 

“But, where’s Bobby?” She said. They looked around, but the older agent was not with them anymore. They heard a scream somewhere back in the direction they had come, and knew they had to go look for him.

 

“…don’t think he’ll mind if we take this _filth_ out of the game” Lucy and George were dangerously close to Bobby, who was pressed against a crumbling wall. The older agents had their rapiers out and pointed at the small and unarmed Fittes boy.

 

“Hey!” Alphonse called, attracting everyone’s attention to him “why don’t you mess with someone your own size!”

 

“Like… _you_?” Came the taunting reply from Lucy. She jumped on them making a sound that very much resembled a snarl. Both kids ran away from her and George, who were now chasing them around the decomposing land. Odile and Alphonse were lost as to where to run, but as long as they could stay away from the other agents-

 

“Alphonse!” Came a girly scream. He looked back to find Odile with foot stuck in the ground and Lucy coming alarmingly close to her. He ran back and moved the rocks that kept his friend’s foot stuck.

 

“Gotcha!” 

 

_‘SLASH!’_

 

Alphonse put ran after Odile, putting distance between himself and the now-highly-enraged girl who’s cheek he had just gashed with his rapier. The heavy footsteps from the older agents resounded behind them and soon Alphonse and Odile found themselves in an alley with walls too high to climb. They looked around, but the only way out of the alley was blocked by the two older agents.

 

“Here, kiddo, kiddo, kiddo…” Came the taunt of a male voice from the far end of the street. The kids reached for their rapiers, but only Alphonse had one. He took a step forward and made a small set of patterns in the air with the sword, in an attempt to show the other two he was not afraid to fight them. This, however, only managed to make them laugh as loud and roaring as before.

 

“That was it?!” Lucy’s voice mocked him halfway through the alley “Ha! Do it again,…come on!”

 

“Stop!” A voice called from the end of the alleyway. They all looked back to search for the owner of the voice, and found Quill Kipps standing there with Kat Godwin and…Bobby.

 

“Look at that George, if it isn’t the world’s most rotten carrot top”

 

“Leave my agents alone” Kipps took a set of steps forward, his rapier threateningly standing before him.

 

“They are on our side of the Border” George called “We can do with them as we please, remember Kipps?” The named boy remained silent, knowing full well what the Portland Agreements said.

 

“I’ll fight you two if necessary” He finally said, taking a defensive stand. Lucy and George tightened their grips in their rapiers, but then looked at each other. After a few seconds of silent agreement between them, they sheathed back their swords and walked back to the open.

 

“We’ll let you go…” Lucy said in Kipps ear “for now”

 

After the two teenagers were gone, both kids walked over to the Fittes team leader.

 

“Mr Kipps, we are-”

 

“You kids deliberately disobeyed orders” 

 

“We are sorry…”

 

“Let’s go. The longer we stay here, the more in danger we are” They walked out of the alley, hand in hand with Kat Godwin, and out of the dying land. After a few minutes of walking they encountered the yellow tape that read ‘PRECAUTION’ on it that signaled the Border. From where they stood they could see real buildings and moving cars a little farther; nobody wanted to be the one’s whose jobs stood beside the Portland Border.

 

“Kat” Kipps called her from a few steps before her.

 

“Yes, Quill?”

 

“Take Bobby with you back to Fittes and call Mrs Adderly. Tell her we’ll have to reschedule for next week. I need to have a word with Alphonse and Odile” The kids looked up to Kat pleadingly; they didn’t wanted to be left alone with the leader while he was angry. But she softly pulled her hands from theirs and took Bobby’s, then walked away, not without giving the kids an apologetic look “kids” They heard Kipps call them.

 

They looked at each other and walked up to their leader and stood beside him. He kept his eyes closed and his head high with his hands stiffly at his side. Finally he opened his eyes and looked at them sadly.

 

“Kids, I am very disappointed in you” They bowed their heads “You could have been killed. You know the rules, it is forbidden to pass the Portland Border: inside it, nobody, not even DEPRAC, would have had the right to stop them from hurting you”

 

“…but they let us go, they listened to you…” 

 

“That doesn’t mean anything good, if anything it is a warning, they have _no_ compassion whatsoever. You kids were lucky Bobby managed to get out and that Kat and I were nearby, if we hadn’t, nobody would have dared to go inside and challenge them”

 

“We are sorry, Mr Kipps, but we were just trying to be brave” Alphonse said.

 

“Being brave doesn’t mean we go looking for trouble. We agents are brave when we need to be, but not even the bravest men or women would dare to encounter _them_ , not because of cowardice, but because it is the wise thing to do” He fell silent looking at the kids, who kept their eyes to the ground “Come on, I’ll take you two home, its getting late. I won’t tell your parents or your supervisors, I don’t think that after this encounter you’ll ever come close to the Border again”

 

He took the kids’ hands and gave them a gentle squeeze.

 

“Mr Kipps?” Odile muttered.

 

“Yes?”

 

“They had rapiers with them, are they agents?

 

“…they used to be”


End file.
